Chapter 63
Chapter
Sixty-Three
Shards of broken glass shattered in all directions.
Wraith lifted his hands to protect himself. He cried out as several glass shards cut his arms. Thankfully, it didn’t feel like any of the glass went deep. Beside him, the warrior monk holding his shoulder turned his face away and cried out, but he did not release his grip on Wraith.
The green dragon stretched his neck high. His head brushed the ceiling. Gerard turned his head from side to side. At least Wraith was reasonably certain it was Gerard, since scars ran across his scales and one of his eyes was completely white.
Gerard’s good eye scanned the tableau before him. Then he opened his jaw and darted forward. He bit the high priestess, lifting her into the air. She didn’t scream or cry out. She didn’t have time.
Gerard opened his mouth. The separated top and bottom halves of Wraith’s aunt flopped onto the floor. Blood and innards spilled out.
Noise at the back of the crypt caused Wraith to turn. A tomb slab smashed into a dread knight. Wind blew, flinging skeletons and corpses. Lightning sparked and struck the undead. Vines raced up the walls and across the floor, wrapping around skeletons and corpses.
Elias, Onyx, and Juniper, along with guards from Draconia, the Grey Mountains, Botanial, Voltaria, and Zephyrias, marched forward into the crypt. Prince Matteo came up beside them, in a circular formation with four other wind sorcerers.
Chaos ensued. The dread knights drew their swords and ran towards the back of the crypt. Necromancers scattered and regrouped. The grand monk, grand shield, and most of the monks fled towards an enclave at the right of the crypt and out of Gerard’s reach.
Gerard would not be able to hurt the monks, since he’d signed a contract too. But Wraith supposed that when a dragon showed up and bit someone in half, knowing that the dragon couldn’t actually hurt you wasn’t enough to stop the panic taking over.
The necromancers and dread knights didn’t even try to attack the monks, no doubt remembering what had just happened to the shadow king, Vex, and Harrow. All their attention seemed to be on the back of the crypt.
Wraith thought the necromancers should be working with them against the monks, but he supposed they hadn’t had time to adjust their thinking.
But do Gerard and the others know they can’t attack the monks?
Having realised the other monks had fled, the warrior monk holding Wraith released him. He, as well as the few monks not already in the enclave, ran to join their brethren. Now free, Wraith dashed towards Konrad on the altar.
For a second, he expected to feel pain for disobeying the grand monk’s orders. But none came. Maybe the grand monk had to be focused on them for the whole “obey my will” thing to work.
That made sense to Wraith. Necromancers and their reanimated worked similarly. The necromancers had to be focused on the reanimated and pouring their will into them to get them to do as the necromancers wished. Otherwise, the reanimated would just collapse or remain stationary.
“Wraith! Are you all right?” Konrad was covered in blood. However, Wraith was pretty certain it all belonged to his aunt.
“I’m fine.” With his shackled hands, Wraith gripped the chains holding Konrad down. He tugged. But they wouldn’t give. He cried out and yanked. The chains rattled, but it did nothing. Wraith saw that the chains ran through two rings on either side of the stone altar.
Gerard clomped forward. He lifted a claw and gripped one of the rings. He yanked. The ring tore free from the stone. He moved around to the other side of the altar and did the same.
Konrad sat up, shoving the chains down his body. “Thanks, Gerard! Now let’s—” He broke off, his gaze on the window.
Wraith turned. King Alaric stood blocking the broken window. The bone dragon opened his mouth wide. Dragonfire spewed out at the dragons circling outside.
The dragons swerved and dove, trying to attack the bone dragon whilst dodging dragonfire. No doubt they didn’t fight fire with fire because Konrad, Wraith, and Gerard were behind the bone dragon and within range.
At least attacking the bone dragon didn’t seem to count as attacking the monks. If it did, the dragons would be dead.
“Fire and fucking flames,” Konrad muttered.
Wraith looked around. The monks still stood in the enclave. The warrior monks had drawn their weapons but had not joined the fray. The grand monk’s lips moved, gaze fixed on the bone dragon he compelled.
“The grand monk is controlling him and making him attack the others,” Wraith said.
The grand monk’s attention seemed completely on the bone dragon. So that meant he wasn’t paying attention to anyone else. At least not yet.
Gerard growled and took a step towards the monks.
Wraith jumped directly in front of him and placed his hands on Gerard’s scaly chest. “No! You can’t attack the monks! Not whilst the contracts are intact. It will kill you. That’s how they died.” Wraith gestured to his dead siblings and the shadow king.
He knew he’d not explained everything properly, but he hoped it would be enough to at least stop Gerard from attacking the monks and causing his own death.
“Do not attack any monks, Gerard. You will die immediately! Do not fucking do it!” Konrad shouted at his brother as he climbed off the altar.
Gerard glanced between them and the monks.
Then the reanimated and dread knights ran at them.
“You can attack them though.” Konrad pointed.
Gerard turned towards the undead. He attacked them with claws, teeth, and tail. The necromancers controlling the reanimated stood to the left, on the opposite side of the crypt from the monks.
Then a dread knight got past Gerard and ran towards Wraith and Konrad, sword lifted.
Lightning struck. The dread knight shook, body lighting up as the sparks tore through it. The scent of burning flesh filled the air. The dread knight fell to the ground.
Elias ran towards Wraith and Konrad. They took cover behind the stone altar.
“Elias! Did you work out that the monks were behind all this?” Konrad asked.
“Not exactly. But Clara’s words didn’t sit right with me.
” Elias scanned the room. “So I followed her. She went to a chamber in the East Tower. At first, it didn’t seem too suspicious.
But then I saw the grand monk and grand shield, who were looking at all these scrolls lined up on one table in the centre of the room. ”
Elias turned to Konrad. “But you were meant to be meeting the grand monk, so I knew Clara was lying.”
The dread knight Elias had struck began to rise.
“Fuck!” Elias yelled and zapped him again. The dread knight collapsed to the ground.
“Anyway, we followed them and they went to a room with all these warrior doves and monks,” Elias said. “They looked like they were preparing for a fight, so I knew something was going on.”
Gerard gripped a dread knight between his teeth and flung him against the wall.
“Then Gerard and I followed them to this crypt, where we last left you,” Elias said.
“I’ve been looking into maps of the White Monastery since the attack on me and Gerard.
I’d even come down here once. I remembered that the back of the crypt would be too small for a dragon to shift.
Thankfully, I also knew this crypt had a giant window at the back that a dragon should be able to smash through. ”
Although, at present, the other dragons couldn’t get past because the bone dragon was still defending it. They just darted forward and snapped, before flying away when King Alaric shot dragonfire.
Gerard stomped on a skeleton. Then he swung his tail, taking out several corpses and skeletons at once.
“But we thought we might need more people to fight,” Elias said.
“So we ran to where Konrad arranged to meet the other rulers and our siblings. Most of the rulers had not arrived. But our siblings had turned up. Ash and Barrett too. So then we came back and launched an attack. Although, it looks like we need to destroy the— What the fuck is that thing?”
“He is a bone dragon,” Wraith answered as King Alaric spewed dragonfire.
“That is my father brought back against his will,” Konrad said, voice tense. “He is being controlled by the grand monk.”
Elias’s mouth fell open. Then his gaze turned to the monks. His fingers flexed. “I can take care of him.”
Wraith gripped his arm. “You can’t attack the monks. If you do, you’ll die. It’s in the contracts we signed.”
“What?” Elias blinked.
Konrad shook his head. “No time to explain. But no one can attack the monks or they die.”
Elias frowned. “Okay.”
“But … But I think I have a plan.” Wraith’s brows furrowed. “Do you think the scrolls you saw were the scrolls we signed? For the marriages and everything else?”
“I think it is likely,” Elias said. “But I can’t be sure. They had lots of warrior monks protecting them, so whatever it is, it must be important. Why do you ask?”
Wraith ignored the question. “You said it was in the East Tower?”
Elias nodded. Then his face twitched. “Blast and lightning. Why won’t you just die?”
The dread knight Elias had already shocked had gotten to his feet again. Elias threw lightning, and the dread knight crumpled once more. “My lightning just won’t fucking kill them!”
Suddenly Konrad darted forward to the fallen body of the shadow king. He grabbed something from his body and then ran back. Wraith saw he held keys. Konrad also had the shadow king’s sword tucked beneath his arm.
He was trying the keys in his shackles. One turned, and the shackle released.
“Yes!” Konrad said, and he undid the other one. “Give me your wrists, Wraith.”
Wraith did, and Konrad tried each key until one worked. He quickly removed the shackles from Wraith’s wrists.
“Thanks.” Then Wraith took a breath and stood. “Okay.” He stepped forward, eyes fixed on the bone dragon, who kept his offspring at bay. “Umbra. Come to me. Come to me now.” Her form materialised beside him. “Protect me.”
She rubbed her body against his. “Always and forever!”
“And we will protect you too.” Konrad held the shadow king’s sword.
Elias nodded and lifted his hands. Sparks danced along his fingers.
Wraith took a shaky step towards the bone dragon.